That horrific taste didn’t leave my mouth for the rest of the day. It was almost as bad as the time I ate raw whale tongue soaked in its own blood. Then, I was caught up in a summer solstice celebration in Barrow, Alaska, and that was apparently a delicacy.

Friday, I was just an idiot.

Because I’m waiting for my first shipment of food from Nutri-System, I’m still on my own. So I picked up some sashimi. Normally, I’m very careful about where I eat raw fish. This time I just picked a random supermarket in Little Tokyo.

I think it was alright. It’s not like I got it out of a vending machine at Jiffy Lube or anything. And eight hours later, nothing had erupted out of any portal. So I’m going to call it a good pick.

Met a friend for dinner. I had salad. Boring green salad with a lot of boring vegetables. No dressing. And a boring water with a boring lemon in it. Dinner was boring.

Quick workout a couple hours later. Just 30 minutes on the stair climber. Averaged 110 steps per minute. It said I burned 497 calories, but everyone says disregard the results.

Every weekday for six weeks, Los Angeles Times employees (a.k.a. desk jockeys) Tony Pierce and Jimmy Orr will chronicle their battles of the bulge. It's real-life weight loss in almost-real time -- kind of like a reality show without the tears.